rprised Waters by finding his
voice--and a very full-toned, convincing voice it proved to be, not at
all like his usual whisper. And he told Waters to keep out of his room
in study hour; he told him that he did not care to have his chances of
becoming class valedictorian spoiled through having to divert his
attention and listen to such superficial tommy-rot. And he told him to
keep himself away, now and forever more, from his room and its owner.

"Oh, very well!" I heard the injured Waters say. A second later he had
come across into my room and was pouring into my ear a complaint
concerning the beggarly rudeness of that "grind, Fallon, who never would
amount to anything in the college world, anyhow!"

He had just returned from a very important meeting, he told me, for the
express purpose of having that heart-to-heart talk with Fallon--and the
big, uncouth beggar didn't appreciate it at all. No wonder some fellows
never did get along in college--and here he was, absent from this most
important meeting, with no results at all.

He didn't mind telling me--(here his voice died down into an impressive
whisper)--that it was from a fraternity meeting he had come. They were
great things, these fraternity meetings. It was really too bad that I
had never been able to join a fraternity--but then, of course, I must
realize that fraternities had to draw the line somewhere! Now, I mustn't
take that as a reflection on me personally--because it wasn't. I was all
right, I was--and some day, he was sure, I was going to be a big man in
the college world--bigger than he himself ever hoped to be. But Jews
were a funny people--and I must admit, if I wanted to be fair, that some
of them weren't fit to come to college at all, not to speak of joining
fraternities.

And so he went on, until, thoroughly nauseated by the bland niceness of
his speech, I followed Fallon's example and threw him out, though he
refused to be insulted at this move, and promised to come around the
next night and discuss the question of who should be elected our next
football manager.

A little while after he was gone, Fallon came across the hall and
knocked at my door. It was a timid, scared sort of a knock, and it
needed a loud and repeated, "Come in," before he finally obeyed my
summons.

He was pitifully wrought up over the incident. He had wanted to be
polite to Waters, but he had had to study. He hadn't wanted to insult
him, but somehow Waters never did under